06. Oh rare Turpin
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No. 6.
Oh. rare Turpin Hero, was a great favourite.
Yet Turpin was hanged at York
in
Annotations
This is the ballad "Turpin Hero" (Roud 621) of which there are many variants. It has had a robust history both in print and performance. William Chappell writing in Popular Music of the Olden Time claimed that the ballad was written in 1739 before Turpin was executed. There are many broadside ballads with different variants, including eight in the Bodleian Broadsides.
It was collected in Linconshire three times by Percy Grainger (from David Belton, Joseph Leaning and Dean Robinson). It was also collected by Frank Kidson and Cecil Sharp, and was part of the repertoire of the Copper Family of Rottingdean in Suffolk
It has been recoded by Shirley Collins, Ewan McColl, Roy Harris, John Roberts & Tony Barrand, Eliza Carthy, Brian Peters, Nick Hart among many others (see Mainly Norfolk for details).
